2023-23 McKenzie’s.. The original is always a favorite. Sold by Tastee Donuts.
2023-24 Home baker gallete du rois which was tasty but inconsistent. The almond filling was nonexistent in some sections and an inch thick in others.
Alt-2 KC Macaron from the Cake Guy
2023-20 Gracious Bakery French traditional: Aka the Frenchy French one, light and delicious
2023-21 Duong Phuong cream cheese. As always cream cheese filled is not my favorite but the small piece shared with me was tasty.
Alt-3 KC hand pies from Windowsill Pies, as my Mom said, “this is magnificent!” They are strawberry filled!
2023-22 redacted cream cheese pecan praline filled – my coworker thought this was the best one he’d ever eaten. I thought it was awful. So over filled that the dough wasn’t cooked. I had one bite and said no, thank you.
Finished decorating my house which delayed me from actually typing this up. Of course the wind tore some stuff down within 24 hours so patches need to happen.
Alt-1 Mochinut KC donut: um wow. These donuts are delicious and made with rice flour (like mochi) so are, of course, gluten free. The KC was nice and cinnamon-y and came with a plastic baby.
2023-17 Counterspace (Baton Rouge) traditional: I happened upon this BR bakery selling small king cakes at an event in New Orleans. Nice and yeasty and just the right amount of icing.
2023-18 Bittersweet traditional mini; This is an instance where size does matter. The mini just wasn’t as delicious as a full size, not sure if it’s a ratio issue or what.
2023-19 Haydel’s traditional: One of the original king cakes that I had in my childhood. I prefer the traditional and not the filled.
2023-13 Breads on Oak traditional This is one of the best vegan king cakes in town and it is tasty. It’s the cinnamon roll style which isn’t my favorite but still tasty. Also they don’t use a plastic baby but go old school with an almond instead… My Dad said they would bake an entire shelled pecan in cakes in the late 1940s. A plastic baby might be easier on your teeth!
2023-14 random funeral king cake traditional It was OK. I have no idea where it was from. Funerals are sad.
2023-15 Gracious Bakery chocolate filled. The Gracious Bakery cakes are a nice brioche style and the chocolate is a good quality dark chocolate. This has been my house king cake over the last week but even slightly stale it has been delicious. Bonus for the creepy blue baby!
2023-16 Dorignac’s cream cheese was this week’s work king cake. It came in a little squished but was tasty and the cream cheese was flavorful and not overly goopy. 
First step was figuring out how to log back into my site.
Week 1 of the 2023 carnival season was a good one… 6 king cakes sampled, 1 parade watched, beaucoup friends visited and 1 brother & 2 nieces hung out with.
2023-1 Mad Batter traditional – I saw that I had a novelty Mad Batter last year but their traditional was really good. More the cinnamon roll style which isn’t really my favorite but it’s been a year so I gobbled it up.
2023-2 Hi Do creme filled – I stopped into a friend’s apartment after Krewe de Jeanne d’Arc and she offered me a slice so it was only polite to sample. Delicious. Hi Do’s fillings are always good.
2023-3 Nolita traditional – several friends have been raving about this one. I thought it was a smidge dense but I will say this one held up over several days so that’s great for a brioche style.
2023-4 Hi Do traditional – The king cake that I brought to my Mom’s. Simple and fresh
2023-5 Gracie’s Bakery traditional – When I got to my Mom’s, I was able to have a small slice of this home bakery version which is traditionally braided, you almost never see that anymore. Of course I love this one since it’s based on my Mom’s recipe.
2023-6 La Louisiane traditional – My coworker brought this one. She picked up from Sam’s. I’ve always liked this commercial bakery. Glad to see it’s still a good choice.
Only one more king cake to add…
2022-25 Galette des Rois from Gracious Bakery – Decided to end the season with this beauty! The frangipan was delicious and it has a French fevre instead of a plastic baby. Perfect end to the season.
I also made it to 31 (!) parades: Neferititi, Chewbaccus, KdV, Delusion, Cleopatra, Oshun, ALLA, Pontchartrain, Choctaw, Freret, Sparta, Pygmalion, Femme Fatale, Carrolton, King Arthur, Druids, Nyx (to see how the mighty have fallen), Babylon, Chaos, Muses, Hermes, D’Etat, Morpheus, Iris, Tucks, Endymion, Thoth, Bacchus, Proteus, Orpheus, and Rex. And that’s with skipping a bunch because it was cold or I was tired. Phew.
2022-22 Gambino’s traditional – I hadn’t had a Gambino’s in a couple of years and I remember why now. It’s too fluffy/cinnamon roll texture for me.
2022-23 Gracious Bakery chocolate – My mom says chocolate doesn’t belong in king cakes. And I’m like Pierre and say, “I don’t care!” This brioche was delicious and the chocolate had a nice bittersweet flavor
I started the week off with a duplicate slice of Caluda’s plain but it was handed to me at a party so how could I resist?! Much fresher and fluffier than the stale piece I had work.
2022-20 Caluda’s cream cheese filled – Caluda’s cakes are following me! I am not generally a fan of filled king cakes and this one exemplifies why. It’s just a big glop of cream cheese that isn’t particularly tasty in the middle of some dough. I picked around the filling and tossed it
2022-21 Mad Batter’s Bakery doberge – This turned up at my work and I had read about it and was curious to try it. Let’s get the doberge part of out the way. It is not in any way shape or form a doberge cake. (Old school New Orleans specialty with multiple layers of thin cake, pudding like filling and icing/ganache.) The cake is delicious and very cinnamon-y. The icing is what reads as doberge and is fun for a novelty….. OK wait there are some blobs of filling. I had a bite with some chocolate pudding but never saw any in the lemon side.
2022-18 Norma’s guava/cream cheese – oh my. This is my uncle’s favorite king cake and I get why. It’s not really American style cream cheese. To me it’s somewhere between sour cream and cream cheese which is a nice sour note with the guava and a really light fluffy cake. Yummy.
2022-19 Mckenzie’s traditional – Soft and fresh and not too sweet. I love this king cake; it’s a better version of the one from my childhood.
2022-14 & 15 Two minis from Bittersweet Confections, one traditional and one chocolate purchased from King Cake Hub – The chocolate is amazing (even if Mom says chocolate makes it not a king cake). And the traditional is also very good but I need to just remove some of the icing.
2022-16 homemade french style – so impressed with my coworker who made this delicious cake!
2022-17 Caluda’s mini – my coworker hedged her bets and brought some mini Caluda’s in case folks didn’t like her homemade effort. Hers was so good that these were pale (and a little stale) in comparison.
Blathering 504 